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David Hirzel

David Hirzel

Aug 31 2013
Love0

“Noises Off!” Pacifica Spindrift’s Spot-On New Production

By David Hirzel

Noises Off!  It’s been called the funniest comedy ever written, but it takes the hand of a wise director and the clock-work timing of a very talented cast to make Pacifica Spindrift’s new production of Michael Frayn’s play the laugh-out-loud hit of the season.

Veering between vaudeville, slapstick, and satire, this backstage look into play within a play (there are two playbills, one for the Spindrift production of Noises Off! and one for the spurious Nothing On), staged on a stage of the home of a pair of British tax-exiles.  The characters of Nothing On include a befuddled housekeeper, a lecherous rental agent with a potential client, a playwright and his wife, a director and his crew.  The characters of Noises Off! are the cast of the fictitious play.  Confused?  Don’t be.  Come and see this new production, and all will make complete sense, or nonsense.

The key to the comedy is the seamless flow of rapid-fire verbal exchanges, seasoned with exquisite comedic choreography—remember this:  “doors and sardines; getting on, getting off”—elevated to a high art.  An ensemble piece like this demands a lot of everyone involved, in equal measure, and the entire cast is up to the task. Even though I know it’s work, they make it look like fun.

The first act sets the stage for what will happen next, and each actor has a chance to shine on stage and oil the gears for everything is to follow.  The laughs are genuine and frequent, with well-done physical comedy and witty repartee; the plot thickens as more and more people enter the house, unknown to each other.

The set has two sides, and we get to see them both, in the ingenious constructions of master carpenter Mike Calderaro.  The second act set shows us the backstage Nothing On, now in performance on the road and  falling apart as we watch.  This is where the choreography really shows; you’ll have to go see the play to know what I mean.  We the audience loved every minute of it. Take special note of the individual performances going on simultaneously, while the play plays out before us on on the other side of this backstage set.

The third act turns the stage around again, and Nothing On, now as polished as it’s every likely to be, continues into its inevitable dissolution.  This production has got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on stage, or anywhere, for that matter.  I complimented director Debi Durst after the show, and she of course gave all credit to her cast and crew, who really worked hard to make this show work so well.  It was a challenge for all, with the temporary closing of the Spindrift Theater and the subsequent scramble to find rehearsal and this performance space at Serramonte del Rey, 699 Serramonte Blvd., Daly City CA.  Everyone—and I mean everyone—in this show gets a rave review for an all-out effort, but my personal favorites are Dominic J. Falletti’s Garry Lejeune and Dianna Collett’s PoppyNorton-Taylor.

This new temporary performance space has plenty of room, and you won’t find a better theater experience anywhere, so come on down to see this run of Noises Off! before it ends September 15.

As for me, I’ll never think of sardines in the same way again.

Box Office:  650-359-8002

Website:  Pacifica Spindrift Players

David Hirzel:  www.davidhirzel.net

Aug 26 2013
Love0

“All’s Well That Ends (especially) Well” at Marin Shakespeare

By David Hirzel

Marin Shakespeare has taken on “All’s Well that Ends Well,” one of Shakespeare’s more challenging plays, and pulled it off well.  Deeper than a comedy, funnier than a tragedy, the Bard’s careful look at character and deception has plenty of laughs (especially as served up by James Hiser), and a generous helping of insight into the potential depths of character that (we hope) exist in all of us.  The plot, like many of Shakespeare’s has its unique convolutions that don’t lend themselves readily to synopsis in a brief review like this.  But the language, much of it in rhymed couplets, can soar in unexpected flights.  Suffice it for me to say, the cast and direction here do yeoman work to keep the audience up to speed on the machinations at hand, as female lead Helena (superbly portrayed by newcomer to Marin Shakes, Carla Pauli) deftly plots her way into the  shallow heart of the playboy Bertram (also new here, Adam Magill).

A mesmerizing performance by Jessica Powell alternates between her heartfelt maternal care for the future of her ne’er-do-well son Bertram, and the tender intimacy she shares with her handmaiden Helena, the daughter she wishes were her own. The first half fairly hums along, alternating between laugh-out-loud comedy (Lucas McClure as Lavatch, Hiser’s clowinish Parolles, and Scott Coopwood’s Lafeu) and lovelorn pathos, and the miraculous cure of a perceptibly dying King of France (Jack Powell, another talented and familiar actor).

The second half is even better.  Once the actors really get warmed up, the complex pacing slips into gear, and the show takes off when the scene moves into Florence and the Shakespearean boudoir deceptions are plotted and then executed. Heather Cherry, as a flamboyant Widow of that fair city, fairly owns the stage every second she is on it.  Parolles, at last humbled by his own web of lies, reveals a hidden soul that brought a round of applause from the audience.  And I must confess, the final scene’s emotional outburst by Luisa Frasconi as Diana brought a tear to my eye.  In the end, all these troubled souls come to the understanding that, for all their (and our) weaknesses, there always exists the possibility that “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

Through September 29, 2013.  Box Office:  (415) 499-4488

At:  Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, Dominican University of California in San Rafael

Website:  Marin Shakespeare

David Hirzel’s Website:  www.davidhirzel.net

May 18 2013
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Pacifica Spindrift: “The Little Foxes” come home

By David Hirzel

The notes I made at intermission refer to the strong performances by all the actors in what amounted to an ensemble piece:  each of them came onstage, thoroughly created their characters and laid out their part in the framework for the story. Especially noteworthy during the first two scenes: Laurie Wall’s “Birdie Hubbard” barely controlled her developing mental breakdown, and Bethany Friedel’s expertly nuanced teenaged “Zan Giddens” brought a few laughs from those in the audience who knew adolescents well.  Kris Carey’s “Oscar Hubbard” was brimming with the suppressed rage of a dominated younger brother to John Szabo’s cool, macchiavellian “Ben Hubbard” as they negotiated a seamy business deal with John Tranchitell’s “Mr. Marshall.”  All this in the first two acts of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

The Director’s Notes comment that Ms. Hellman “had not meant for audiences to think of her characters as villains to whom they had no connection. but to recognize some part of themselves in the money-dominated Hubbards.”  In this she was disappointed.  In me I suppose.  Nothing of me in there.  I did however recognize, in Ben, my cousin.  But I digress. . . .

In the final two acts after intermission, The Little Foxes really, I mean really caught fire.  The impressive work of the first half was just setting the stage for some really powerful performances by everyone in the cast remaining onstage.  One by one each came to the fore, expressing the passion, the despair and resignation, the resilience developed when greed and lust for money betray ordinary familial affection and self-respect.   Collin Wenzel’s Leo finally realizes he’s been “had” by his own father and uncle.  Joy Eaton’s “Regina Giddens,” facing the audience, finally reveals the origin of her cold calculating greed.  There is tragedy enough for everyone here.  Its source is the love of money.

I had a word with director Jim Sousa after the show.  He let his actors run with their parts.  Wise man.  His choice of shades of gray for the set, with bursts of color here and there, served to emphasize the bleakness of the script, and the lives of the characters.

A fine production.  I can’t say enough.

Through May 19, 2013

Theatre website:  Pacifica Spindrift Players

Box Office:  650-359-8002

Review by David Hirzel www.davidhirzel.net

Apr 21 2013
Love0

Fringe of Marin: Season 31, Program Two–Another Winning Lineup

By David Hirzel

Program Two gets off with a bang, a great piece of broad ensemble comedy,”Here’s Your Life (A Tribute to Sid Caesar)”. Great lines (Stacy Lapin and Pamela Rand), great timing, great physical comedy, just what you’d expect from the title, all delivered under the firm and driving hand of director Jerry Ambinder. The mood changes abruptly with Deanna Anderson’s touching and thoughtful reading of Longfellow’s “The Wreck” (of the Hesperus), interwoven with adult memories of a turbulent childhood. “The Freeons” (written and directed by Rachel Cohen) take us to an unusual dining experience near an elegant restaurant, and helps to challenge a young lady’s and our own preconceptions about the meaning and value of food. Right before the intermission Steve North takes us on another wild ride through his psyche and his life experience. His piece is full of laughs and insights where “Something’s Not Wright” but neither he nor we quite know what or why as he veers between seemingly unscripted moments. All a part of the stagecraft of this consummate professional.

Terri Barker in her directorial debut gives us the maturing friendship between a young student aspiring to art, an older man whose muse has left him staring out at the horizon In Peter Hseih’s “Lauren and the Ocean.” In an art of a different kind, Michael Belitsos returns to the stage with a spellbinding mix—“Admissions in the Dark”—of illusionism, stage hypnosis, and a paean to monster and “Ghost” films from Hollywood’s glory days in the genre. The evening closes with a Gina Pandiani’s wry update of Chekhov’s “A Marriage Proposal (2013)” with the battle this time between the Tea Party conservative Ivan and his intended, the Knee-Jerk liberal Natalia, with a surprise ending that Chekhov would never considered.

All in all, a great 31st season, strong line-ups in all departments, for both programs. Special thanks to Pamela Rand and Gina Pandiani for their heroic work in carrying on the noble tradition of the Fringe of Marin started 31 seasons ago by Annette Lust. Also to light + sound wizard Jeremy Block, and the behind the scenes stagehands who help to make it all happen. The spirit continues! Long live the Fringe!

Apr 20 2013
Love0

The Fringe of Marin Lives On! 31st Season 4/19-5/5

By David Hirzel, Flora Lynn Isaacson, Gaetana Caldwell-Smith

The Fringe is upon us again.  We have lost our guiding light, Annette Lust, but the long-running series of one-act theater productions she created and nurtured through 31 seasons lives on, still suffused with her energy, and now her memory.  Opening night April 19, with its mixture of low comedy, witty insight, and real-life drama, is a powerful testament to that memory.

The evening opens with “Mr. Wonderful” (long-time Fringer Harold Delinsky) and MC/writer/director George Dykstra exchanging vaudevillian one-line groaners between sets of 60s popular dance (think “the Swim”) by a trio of local high-school students.   Danielle Littman has written a touching, insightful ode to the “Last Letter” that will ever be carried by our dwindling USPS, and actress Hilda Roe delivers.  Maureen Coyne and Al Badger return to the Fringe with their trademark well-tuned performances, this as a married couple who never quite got what they wanted in Norma Anapol’s “Rose Levy Learns at Last.”

After the Intermission, the Romantic poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Molly McCarthy) comes to life, choosing “Not Death, but Love” (written and directed by Roberta Palumbo) and leaving the father who never quite knew her for the poet now taking her away to new and unknown adventures.  “The Dead Celebrity Line” (by Gaetana Caldwell Smith) looks into the inner workings of a lingerie store, and the lives of the young ladies in retail.  Amazing performances by Hilda Roe and Flora Lynn Isaacson reach deep into the real tragedy that war brings to those who have no part in it in David Hirzel’s “The Two Hundredth Day” (very well directed by Steve North).  The evening comes to a well-tuned close with a witty take on the complicated ritual of birthday-gift choices in modern marriage.

As always, the Fringe of Marin continues to surprise and delight.  Program Two opens tonight.  See the Fringe website for performance times and dates for both programs.

 

All shows at Meadowlands Hall, Dominican University in San Rafael.

Five performances only of each program, weekends.

Last show May 5 matinee.

Box Office 415-673-3131

Fringe of Marin website and program

Review by David Hirzel (author of “The 200th Day”)

Mar 16 2013
Love0

Pacifica Spindrift Players “Godspell” Soars

By David Hirzel

Pacifica Spindrift Players’ current production of the musical Godspell is full of such good fun, good singing, inspired stagecraft, a great score creatively adapted by the cast and the production team, and something that you don’t get in every musical—a message. “Godspell” is an archaic spelling of gospel, here cast in modern music and dance, and more than a little free-form improv.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no preaching here, even though Jesus (Darius Rose)  has center stage here, of course.  He shares it with John the Baptist, Abraham, characters from Biblical parables and Greek mythology, and latter-day flower-children.

There are plenty of laughs, and the most memorable music in the uplifting first act.  Almost every song is a show stopper, from the gathering of philosophers lost in their own ideas in the hilarious “Tower of Babble” that opens the show, through Calypso’s (Jenna Smith) stunning performance of “O, Bless the Lord My Soul” and the charming vaudevillian soft-shoe take on “All for the Best.”

There are three “swine” on the stage for a few minutes, but everyone gets a chance to ham it up.  There’s an inspired bit of parable in the form of a sock-puppet show.  The entire cast is onstage the whole show, and everyone in the ensemble—more than I have space to mention  here—gets a turn in the spotlight.   A live band secluded onstage accompanies the singing. It’s a happy production.

It turns somber after the intermission.  Those who know the real story know what’s coming.  The party’s over.  Judgment is at hand, temptation waits in the wings, a failure of faith, betrayal.  The music sets the mood, especially the touching “By My Side.”  Judas has been an edgy character on the stage throughout the show, and here we see the complexity that John Espejo has brought to the role.  “On the Willows” puts us at the scene of the crucifixtion.  The industrial scaffolding that has been part of the stagecraft suddenly takes on a new and deeper meaning. The lesson here, repeated in so many ways throughout the show, is or could be the framework on which we build our own lives:  Love your neighbor.

Through March 31.  Box office:  650-359-8002

Pacifica Spindrift Players website:  http://www.pacificaspindriftplayers.org/

David Hirzel website:  http://davidhirzel.net

Mar 03 2013
Love0

Musical “Big River” flowing through College of Marin

By David Hirzel

You probably know Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain’s famous 1884 novel, but I’ll bet you didn’t know he could sing!  Check out College of Marin’s new production of the 1988 Tony Award-winning musical Big River.  The big river is, of course, the Mississippi, and the show follows Huck’s transformative journey down that stream with the escaped slave Jim.  Twain’s book, an American classic seems to be aimed at the young adult reader, but it explores the deeper meanings of friendship, loyalty, and the knowledge of good and evil.  Closely following the book, Big River does the same.

Zachary Isen’s amazing turn as Huckleberry evolves slowly over the course of the musical to an emotional maturity while never leaving behind the boyish charm that lies at the heart of the character.  Huck deliberately ignores the legal and social strictures of the day in helping the escaped slave Jim (Phillip Percy Williams) along his road to freedom.  Williams’ sensitive portrayal of Jim’s mentoring role, and powerful singing bring heart and soul to the production.  A large supporting cast allows a wide variety of production numbers that get heads nodding and toes tapping throughout the audience.  Especially moving songs include “The Crossing” by the Slave Ensemble, and “River in the Rain,” night crossings  during which we see a friendship bloom on its way into the tragic heart of the American South.

Roger Miller’s music and lyrics are reflective of the show’s historical era, alternating between high-stepping barn dance, quiet reflective waltz melodies, and the deep soul of the yet-to-be-freed Africans enslaved in America’s South.  Inventive staging has the same space doing multiple duty as a town and its wharves, steamboat, the shore and the big river itself.  A seven-piece orchestra provides the musical background, lively and poignant by turns, leading up to the powerful and triumphant reprise of “Muddy Water” that closes the show.

This wonderful show has only a short run.  Don’t miss it.

March 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16 at 8 pm
March 10 and 17 at 2 pm

Tickets: $25 general, $18 seniors, $15 students, $10 children 12 and under

James Dunn Theatre, College of Marin Kentfield Campus

Box Office: 415.485.9385

Website:  http://www.marin.edu/departments/PerformingArts/index.htm

Jan 19 2013
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“Steel Magnolias” bloom in Pacifica through February 10

By David Hirzel

Fortunately for me, my recollection of the 1989 hit motion picture Steel Magnolias was sufficiently faded that nothing remained in my memory by Julia Roberts’ smile. I say fortunately because my take on tonight’s performance of the stage play was not colored by any expectations at all. The story, the characters, the setting were all new for me, the best way to see any theatrical performance. Each character grew with an easy grace, each situation unfolded with the natural evolution of a story well told, where every moment is new and the ending yet unknown. This has a lot to do with the decision of director Gary Pugh Newman and his talented cast to refrain from taking any cues from a recent viewing of the movie.

Set in Truvy’s hairdressing parlor in Louisiana’s fictional Chinquapin Parish, the four ladies who have met there over the years expand their fold to include one’s daughter about to be wed, and a restless waif looking for a place to call home. Set over the span of a year and a half, the younger women mature before our eyes; less obviously, so do the older women, as the cycles of wedding, divorce, birth and death pass through them, to us. Robert Harling’s 1987 script is peppered with off-the-cuff one-liners and malapropisms that these matrons of the deep South don’t even recognize, but the audience finds consistently funny.

The heart of the story comes to light in the second scene, with the conflict between the newly wed, diabetic and now pregnant Shelby (Stepy Kamei in her debut stage role), and her controlling mother M’Lynn (veteran Spindrift player Joanie Pugh Newman). There is heartbreak in this scene, and the courage of the young woman to break free and lead the life she wishes in spite of its risks. Those risks are great, and the heartbreak even greater as the play progresses, even after mother and daughter reconcile and face the hard choices together. The other women each have a stake in this, a share in the hope and grief they meet with compassion and comic relief in this marvelously witty and insightful play.

This is ensemble performance at its best. There is no single star; there are six. Hayley Thirlwall’s Annelle, the young lady who comes into the beauty-shop an unsure teenager, matures before our eyes. Lisa Lyon gives the role of Clairee its proper wit and weight, with a surprising turn to break the tension at M’Lynn’s most touching, dramatic moment. Joyce Jacobson as Ouiser enlivens the stage the moment she enters. Helen Artell’s Truvy, proprietress of the salon, anchors each scene with professional aplomb. Each player has more than a handful of shining moments on the stage, and generously shares that stage with the others. This is a tribute not only to the performers, but to the director’s skillful nurturing of them.

I have yet to attend any performance by the Spindrift Players that has not delighted and amazed me, and this opening night’s showing of Steel Magnolias is no exception.

Through February 10. 2013
Box office: (650) 359-8002
Spindrift website: http://pacificaspindriftplayers.org/

Review by David Hirzel:  www.davidhirzel.net

Jan 11 2013
Love0

Rock ‘n Roll Heaven: the Dave Crimmen Band

By David Hirzel

You know, there are some kinds of music that make you just have to GET UP AND DANCE!  If that’s what you want, the Dave Crimmen Band in its various incarnations (full band on stage, straight acoustic sets with Dave and the Jordanettes, or the monthly amplified acoustic guitar and string-bass now and coming up at Sausalito’s A Taste of Rome) DELIVERS!

I’ve seen him (them) now in enough disparate venues to promise that what you have here is a bandleader who is (a) a breathing encyclopedia of R+R history starting in the late 50’s (b) a talented singer and guitarist—acoustic and electric—who at times seems to be the living, breathing incarnation of Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Conway Twitty, the Ventures, Buddy Holly. . . .and, oh yes!  Dave Crimmen himself, songwriter extraordinaire in the rockabilly sector.  Check out “Revved Up and Ready to Go” on his Big Daddy D CD.  Better yet, check out Crimmen at one of his live sets, and tell him yourself that’s what you want to hear, and tell him Dave H. sent ya.

The other thing about Dave Crimmen is that, in addition to being a consummate musician, musical historian, and entertainer, he is also a perfect gentleman always giving kudos to his bandmates and to his musical forebears who brought into the world of popular music the most memorable, romantic, and danceable music.  Arcane RnR history:  yep.  Spot on soulful renditions of your favorite slow-dance songs from the 60s:  yep.  Name your favorite song, no matter how obscure a B-side:  yep.

Dave and bassist John Alexander played in Sausalito recently.  The restaurant venue, small as it was, had room for another 20 at least.  Those empty seats couldn’t have enjoyed the show as much as the rest of us did, and more’s the pity for that.

So, for the absolute best in close-in rock-and-roll, don’t miss the Dave Crimmen Band in any of their performances.  Playing all around the Bay Area, in all sorts of venues, the best in old-school RnR.

Next up in Sausalito:  Fri. Feb. 8th, 2013 – A Taste Of Rome, 1000 Bridgeway, Sausalito, 94965, (415) 332-7660 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. NO COVER!

In Millbrae:  Sat.   Jan. 19th, 2013 – The Sixteen Mile House, 448 Broadway, Millbrae, CA 94030,   (650) 697-6118, 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. No Cover

Dave  Crimmen Band website:  http://www.davecrimmen.com/welcome.html
Dec 03 2012
Love0

Chasing Ice: a movie you ought to see. . . .

By David Hirzel

Chasing Ice, a documentary, follows the tracks of photographer James Balog and his crew as they set out to create time-lapse motion pictures of the retreat of glaciers. The idea is to set cameras in place with timers so that each will record one still photograph of a single scene from a single viewpoint, once in twenty-four hours. The cameras will be left untouched, and the film record retrieved every six months, to be assembled into motion pictures of glaciers in motion.

In 2005 this had never been done before, and requires whole new sets of technology, cameras, timers and voltage regulators, and a team of mountaineering adventurers to place them in some pretty daunting mountainsides. The locales are at the melting ends of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Montana. The results are stunning, in more ways than one.

The glaciers under observation are in a state of accelerated collapse and retreat that, now that it can be seen as a movie, is more horrifying than any pop-culture genre film you will see. Such films are fiction; this one is just scientific record, undeniably true even for those who still doubt the existence of climate change. Some of the statistics, presented graphically, recall those of Al Gore’s movie. Chasing Ice presents a clear picture of science and photographic record, unmistakable and beyond argument, but it carries no taint of politics or posturing.

We follow James Balog and his technical and field team from the germ of the idea in 2005 to the present, as he presents the results to astounded audiences. These glaciers are as he calls them “the canary in the coal mine,” the sensitive warning system of impending doom. One glacier is shown retreating in ten years a greater distance than (as the record shows) it had in the previous hundred years, to a haunting piano score that serves to emphasize the unfolding tragedy. We are witness to the cataclysmic collapse of another glacier, the calving of an iceberg the size of lower Manhattan. On the crest of Greenland’s icecap, deep canyons of white ice show blue rivers descending into the bottomless pit. There is no end in sight. The water is going to lubricate the underside of the icecap, to speed it ever faster to its demise. At one point Balog, briefly overcome by the magnitude of destruction that he is now recording, pauses to remind us: “You go out over the horizon—and sometimes you don’t come back.”

There is some hauntingly beautiful still photography also, of ice forms and weird lights, of the aurora borealis, that helps us understand the passion that polar explorers have always shared for these extremes. But what is more haunting is the thought that these images tell us only the beginning of a story that is unfolding now, that has already begun. We don’t know exactly how it will end, but the scientific evidence keeps coming in that the earth’s atmospheric temperature has risen, sea levels have risen, the predictions of extreme weather patterns are being proven.

I’m not writing this to convince you of anything. This movie will be able to do that, and if it succeeds with you, then the best thing you can do is recommend it to everyone you know.

The canary is singing, louder every day. Can you hear it?

Now playing at the Rafael:   http://www.cafilm.org/   Also at select theaters in the Bay Area and nationwide, but not for long

Website: http://www.chasingice.com/